In about 750-850 words, referring to at least three course films (including the possibility of including the film you
chose for Week 8 as one of them), answer the following questions in order:
Several readings, including Week 1 and Kurt Vonnegut’s Shapes of Stories, the videos in which I drew and
discussed the different shapes that Stagecoach, Citizen Kane, and American Graffiti take, and the multiple
attempts to visualize the story of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, are about plot forms and structures.
What can the “shape” (linear, circular, multiple arcs, multiple plots, or something else) of the films’ plots or story
arcs help to understand about these films?
What do you see as an important relationship between the films’ shape and style—that is, its use of
cinematography, color, sound, music, and/or shape, or narrative structure—and what we might think of as its
content—that is, its plot, characterization, themes, and/or symbolism? Refer to course materials, including the
textbook, additional readings, videos, anything you wrote or posted for this class, and of course specific films.
If you want, you can organize these questions in chart form rather than essay form. It could look something like
this:
Shape Content Relationship between shape and content
Movie 1
Movie 2
Movie 3
Sample Solution